1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to sanders, specifically to powered drywall sanders.
2. Prior Art
Power sanders have been used to sand drywall, but due to shortcomings in previous designs, have had only limited success. All known previously designed sanders required the tubular wand to be held essentially parallel to the surface being sanded. A need exists to provide a way to adjust the basic head angle so that the tubular wand may be held in that manner (more or less parallel to the surface being sanded as in sidewall work), or may be adjusted so that for ceiling sanding the wand may be held much lower and in close to the operator's body. Previous designs forced the user to hold the wand with outstretched arms up overhead in order to keep it parallel to the ceiling. Actually performing the sanding operation on ceilings holding the sander in this manner is awkward, unwieldy and very tiring. Previous rotating disk sanders for drywall failed to provide a means to change the basic angle of the sanding head assembly and lock it into place while allowing the disk to freely pivot in any direction and not encounter any interference from the drive cable. These shortcomings made ceiling sanding extremely difficult.
Another problem that had not been solved is interference from the dust collection ring as the sanding disk is being engaged to the work surface. This interference is caused by previous designs requiring too great a pressure to move the ring back as the disk is being engaged. This causes loss of disk control and difficulty in using the machine. The problem was so severe that most users discard the ring altogether, however the resulting dust storm made ceiling sanding nearly impossible and wall sanding very dusty and dangerous to the operator's eyes.
Still another missing feature on previous designs is an integral on board vacuum dust bagging system. Lack of this feature made it necessary to attach the sander to a separate hard to maneuver vacuum machine and cumbersome hose dramatically slowing production. The presence of this hose interfered so greatly with the maneuverability and mobility of the sander, making it slow and cumbersome, that the dust collecting feature was almost never used.